The Akamai State of the Internet Report recently revealed that Kenya is getting 12.2Mbps as an average fixed-broadband internet speed while Australia has 11.1Mbps.

Australia Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull dismissed the comparison of the country’s internet to that of Kenya as “complete rubbish” in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald.

He said, “One-and-a-half percent of people in Kenya have access to broadband. In Australia, it’s 90%. You might have a handful of wealthy people with apartment buildings that have got first world telecoms in a country where the vast majority of people have got no access at all.”

Turnbull alludes that Kenya has far fewer people connected to the internet and those connected can afford fast connections, thus this worked in favour of Kenya getting a higher average than Australia.

But is it actually true? Does Kenya – a country with a GDP per capita of US$1,455 per year – compared to Australia’s US$49,900 – really have faster broadband than Australia?

These remarks were followed by a statement from Peter Ryan, Australia NBN Chief Network Engineering Officer, as seen below.

These remarks were followed by a statement from Peter Ryan, Australia NBN Chief Network Engineering Officer, as seen below:

“Kenya has a total fixed-broadband penetration rate of just 1.75% – so, to be quite clear, that means 98% of Kenya’s households – that’s around 8.8 million premises – don’t even have a fixed-broadband connection..…Australia has a total fixed-broadband penetration rate of around 90%.”

Secondly, Australia is ranked second worldwide as having the highest internet penetration with 89.8% of the population connected to the internet, which translates to 19,554,832 internet users. In Kenya, internet penetration stands at 64.8% which translates to 29,624,474 internet users.